Chattanooga Film Festival will be screening 35 films
It’s been 30 years since “The Monster Squad” premiered in movie theaters and while it did not do well on the big screen it has become a cult favorite, especially among kids who see it for the first time.
It has that perfect mix of campiness and kids-save-the-world blend that appeals to the imaginations of people caught between childhood and a more grown-up reality. The movie continues to find new fans and they love talking about the movie with actors like Andre Gower and Ryan Lambert, both of whom will be in town this weekend for the Chattanooga Film Festival.
Both say they are looking forward to discovering Chattanooga, watching movies, doing their podcast from here and mostly meeting fans of “The Monster Squad.”
“There is something about ‘Monster Squad’ fans,” Gower says. “Whether they first saw it in the theater, which is very few of them, or they rented it on VHS or DVD, for some reason there is this very interesting thing. It hit them some way deep. There is this connection.”
It’s especially true for people who see it as a preteen. It’s like if your best
Christmas memory is from that time in life.
“That’s a good analogy,”
Gower says.
“Kids just relate to the kids or the scenarios in the
movie and it has created this tether or umbilical cord to these kids.”
The film is sometimes
overshadowed by “Goonies” and “Gremlins” by the mainstream, but “Monster Squad” fans are just as loyal, and Lambert points out, for good reason.
“We have a joke that [the kids in ‘Goonies’] fought an old lady and saved a town. We fought Dracula and saved the world.”
“The Monster Squad” is one of almost 35 films being screened at the Majestic 12 downtown. The festival begins today, April 6, and concludes Sunday, April 9. Organizers ask that guests 15 minutes before showtimes and turn off cellphones.
Gower and Lambert will be joined by other special guests including film critic/ comic Joe Bob Briggs and Mark Covino, director of “The Crest,” who was here three years ago screening his documentary, “A Band Called Death.”
“The Crest” is about two cousins in different parts of the country who meet in Ireland to surf the seas around the Blasket Islands, where their great-great-grandfather
was a king. They met after finding a story online about a fiddle another relative left behind in Ireland after a return visit.
“Yeah, it’s a pretty crazy set of circumstances, right?” Covino says. “I had to make it.”
In just three years, the CFF has earned a reputation as a festival that draws fans and filmmakers “who get it.” Like “Monster Squad” fans who wear T-shirts similar to those worn in the film.
“That’s it, they do get it,” Lambert says. “They are movie fans. When you walk through a convention or a film festival and see a kid wearing a ‘Monster Squad’ or a ‘Steven King Rules’ T-shirt, you know that kid gets it. He’s in the club.”
Covino says he’s had the opportunity to travel to film festivals around the world thanks to “A Band Called Death,” and ranks the CFF in his Top 5 list of favorite festivals.
“In terms of programming and how they treat the filmmakers and the fun things they plan in addition to the screenings.”